Modern Warfare 3 breaks 5 day sales record

[thedeparted]

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced today that Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 has shattered theatrical box office, book and video game sales records for five-day worldwide sell-through in dollars. The game established an all-new five-day worldwide sell-through record of more than $775 million, exceeding the record of $650 million set a year ago by Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops and $550 million two years ago for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® 2, according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information..

"With $775 million of sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in its first five days, Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for three consecutive years across all forms of entertainment," said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard. "Life-to-date retail sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded $6 billion worldwide, which makes Call of Duty one of the most valuable entertainment properties in the world. We expect continued sales momentum, as reviews and audience enthusiasm suggest that this is the best Call of Duty game that we have ever made. Online play for Modern Warfare 3 is at record levels and we continue to see high online play for both Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which ranked as the #2 and #4 top-played Xbox LIVE games for the week of November 7, according to Major Nelson."

"As I have said all year, we have been singluarly focused on making a spectacular game for our fans, and nothing else. Our incredible teams at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have done just that," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO, Activision Publishing. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 continues to thrill core gaming enthusiasts as well as draw new people into the medium, which is not an easy balancing act. But it takes more than a great game. I would also like to thank our incredible team for the pulling off the launch of the year, as well as our retail partners around the world. But most of all, I want to thank our fans. They are our toughest critics, and our biggest supporters, and none of this would be possible without them."

In addition to beating all previous first-and five-day theatrical box office, book and video game sell-through records, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 set two new records on Xbox® LIVE™.

According to Microsoft:

More than 7.0 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by the end of launch day, November 8, a 19% increase over last year's 5.9 million multiplayer hours logged playing Call of Duty: Black Ops last year's launch day.
More than 3.3 million unique gamers played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in one day on November 8 up from 2.6 million unique gamers for Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 set a new record for concurrent players on Xbox LIVE with 3.3 million simultaneous users on November 8.



It'll be interesting to see if this is the peak or not for the franchise. The numbers are so crazy.makes my eyes go...:wub:

[LiNuX]

The next one is probably gonna get to a billion.

Crazy.

[paecmaker]

Its funny how people love complaining at every cod game and still it sells MASSIVE and beats record after record.

[himynameisandrew]

it's fishy that activision and gamestop stock plummet after record sales

[Kenoi]

man... that is something. still surprised to find some on store shelves cause I thought it would get sold out or somethin like that...

[thedeparted]

man... that is something. still surprised to find some on store shelves cause I thought it would get sold out or somethin like that...

If stores are anything like my wal mart they just made this huge like pyramid of copies. I swear there is like 200 copies

[Trunks]

I think Call of Duty will keep selling increasing each time unless treyarch messes up terribly on there next game. Which wouldn't surprise me at all.

[BobTD]

its the new pokemon.

Now I ask you, did pokemon get better or worse with time?

[Kink3bird]

its the new Pokemon.

Now I ask you, did Pokemon get better or worse with time?

I don't know how to respond to that to be honest but I can kinda sum it up.
Having been a child during the 90s, i was the target audience for Pokemon and got the most out of it's marketing. the cartoon came out when i was a kid and i got for Christmas the purple game boy color with Pokemon red. i even got into the trading card game i was in love with the series so much. it was really the golden age of Pokemon.
I think the last game i played was ruby and after that my tastes changed and i grew up, lost interest. i have no idea how the series is performing but i think last time i checked the games were still getting universal acclaim, around 8 and 9.
Series like Pokemon and call of duty continue even when their launch audience grows up and loses interest because it keeps continuing the same thing over and over again. I know Pokemon hasn't changed (both cartoon and game)... it's walk around, capture Pokemon, fight a gym leader and repeat. the only difference is it's added more of what works. more Pokemon. more things to do. call of duty does the same, it adds more perks, weapons, attachments, achievements, but keeps the same core game-play. why? because old fans will enjoy it and new comers will be sucked in and amazed just like the old fans were.
series like that continue because they rarely change much. the old fan-base moves on but a new one is already playing because the same basic elements that sucked the first group in are still sucking new players in. the studios know what works and although people complain the games don't change, well why should they? if it's not broke, don't fix it. I think like Pokemon, call of duty will become a title that many generations will be familiar with as time goes on or until the next big thing comes and then repeats over and over.
kinda like halo. halo was king until modern shooters came in and that's what is hot right now. call of duty is very lucky to be a flexible shooter in the sense it can cover pretty much any era with guns and therefore if another saving private Ryan comes out and the market goes back to having interest in ww2, so will the gaming market and call of duty will be right there waiting with a next generation ww2 shooter.

[Exentenzed]

I have not contributed to those numbers.

And just by the way, who checks these numbers? Are they verified?

[Trunks]

I have not contributed to those numbers.

And just by the way, who checks these numbers? Are they verified?

Activision, microsoft, it says it in the quote who released what numbers. Pretty safe to say that it is true.

[-Mw3-]

Thats pretty amazing if you ask me.

[ChineeseGuy]

I'm amazed to death how on earth this game beats selling records again and again every year.

[thedeparted]

Activision, microsoft, it says it in the quote who released what numbers. Pretty safe to say that it is true.

Not to mention they can't lie to their shareholders, that's quite against the law and get them in trouble in a multitude of ways.

[gamer goon]

This game is one of the best games ever made